i was in new york for the weekend of the 18th of october for piglet's birthday. this is my fine fine story, written up a little late.

friday morning, alarms started going off at our house at about 5am. nathan leapt merrily out of bed and then cajoled me out of bed and into the shower. (the dog was emitting sleepyons. pesky dog.) then we sped off to the airport, and i ran frantically (okay, hobbled frantically; next time my flight is on c concourse i'm getting a damn ride) for the gate. i got there just in time (did you know they'll still let you on the plane after the final and immediate boarding call?) and found out that my seat had been changed so that i was sitting in an exit row. ooooh, nooo! extra leg room!

i napped on the plane, trying to make up the sleep that i had missed. partially successful.

once at jfk, i found the taxi stand and got to skip in line ahead of a family of fortyseven and get into a cab. off to piglet's house! zoom! the driver zipped off, and i stared big eyed out the window. we didn't hit too much traffic until we got close to the tunnel. there was much manuevering on little tiny streets with too many cars on them. eeep. the cab driver dropped me off on a street that was obviously mostly commercial with a little industrial mixed in, and i had some uncertainty about where piglet was keeping her house. but i found the door with the right number, and then hiked up three flights of stairs. the second floor is an employment agency, which was interesting in an "i wonder if we have these in minneapolis" sort of way. (i bet we do, but none of my friends here live immediately above them.) up another set of stairs, and then i knocked on the door (which said the name of the company that piglet's boy is, so i felt confident at this point) and was greeted by a squeaky piglet.

i was introduced to simon, charlotte, and acey, and sat down and caught my breath from all that stair climbing. whew! simon was a fabulous host, and stuck my bags in a corner and brought me a glass of water. then piglet, charlotte, acey and i headed out into the big city to buy party presents. (it was a hobbit birthday, you see!) we went to the lighting store downstairs, we went to the sanrio store, we went to the sanrio store, we went to sephora, we stopped at a few street vendors, we stopped at ray's pizza for lunch. yum.

then, back to piglet's house for piglet and myself, and charlotte and acey went off and adventured some more.

jennie d-o'c got there, and so did matthew, and there were many many dinner preparations. i put my shoes back on, nervously looked at my map, and then scooted out into the big wide world to go meet xat and nick at a nearby bookstore, there to walk with them to dinner at sushi samba.

xat had been laid off that day, so she had started the carousing immediately after work without bothering to wait for the rest of us. i think she was entitled, however. we walked over to the place, and it was teensy weensy. in minnesota, the fire marshals wouldn't let that many people fit into a room, i tell you. the food, however, was really quite nice. i had chicken teriyaki, weirdo brazillian style (um, i mean that in a good way), other people had other things that i'm forgetting, and it was all yummy. expensive, but you know, it was new york.

then xat and nick and i walked back to piglet's place and i introduced them to people including the dog. there was nearly a short veer into politics, via property taxes, but we were all good and immediately found something else to talk about.

xat and nick headed for the 11pm train back to new jersey, and shortly after that, holly and peaches (who were friends of charlotte's) showed up. almost immediately afterwards, there was the falling over, at least on my part. oh! also, we caught up on angel.

in the morning, various people stumbled out of bed at various times. i stumbled out of bed, into the living room, veered slightly so as to incoherently hug miz lisa, and then i performed my morning ablutions and we were off to dim sum. (note for minnesotans: i like minnesota dim sum better. email me and i'll give you the name of my favorite place.) dim sum was good, and chinatown was fascinating. very crowded, lots of people, tall buildings very close together-- it was much more like what new york looked like in my head. the one downside to dim sum is that we managed to get not one but twooooo orders of chicken feet, one fried, one boiled. um, eeeew.

then back to the house for many of us (charlotte and a handful of people were once again off into the fray), where there was some cleaning and some grocery shopping.

even if you're not a foodie, if you're ever in new york, go to the garden of eden grocery store. oh. my. god. they sell cheese bits. i mean, the little leftover bits from big blocks of cheese. altogether in a small tub. mmmmmmmmmmm. also, good chocolate. and teeny tiny brussels sprouts. and mini pineapples. and the best olive bar i have ever seen. (i wanted to buy a spoon and then just stay there.)

anyhow. then back to the house and lisa and jennie and simon cooked up a storm. whoosh! at 5pm, people started arriving, some of whom i knew from online, many of whom i didn't. but it was fun, anyhow. got to talk to redbirdvicki, and to eleanor and to maracobrawoman and julian and elissa and um some other people.

i eventually toodled off to bed before everyone left, and managed to embarass someone i don't know at all when they were wandering back to the office to use a computer while i was changing into my jammies. sorry, whoever you were!

i had conferred with jennie earlier, after verifying that she was the only morning person in the apartment, and she promised to come throw something at me at 9am if i was not yet vertical. and she did! yay, jennie! i was conscious, and in the process of talking myself out of bed, but the whole reminder thing was very useful. so i got up, took my meds, threw my jammies into my bag, hugged a bleary eyed piglet goodbye, and then off to la guardia! yes, i flew out of a different airport than i flew into. no, it wasn't my idea. pesky northwest.

i caught a cab, and the cabbie asked me which route i'd like to take to the airport. i gaped at him in an astonished fashion for a second, and then said that whatever he thought was best was fine. my "out of towner" forehead tattoo must have been not working very well there for a minute. so, off we went, and it was an uneventful cabride and an uneventful flight home, and then nathan, my light, my love, met me at the airport with flowers. awww.

soon there will be pictures. people have emailed them to me, since my camera has eaten that roll of film, but i need to get off my rear and organize them. i do. but soon i will post them.

not yet it hasn't helped, i tell you.

apparently miz lauren spent some time this morning explaining to the dogs about the finer points of "both/and" versus "either/or". i'll let you know later if it helped at all with the "no no nonoNO love MMEEEEEEEEEE!!!!" occasional frenzy we get.

Bushism of the Day By Jacob Weisberg:

The vast majority of Iraqis want to live in a peaceful, free world. And we will find these people and we will bring them to justice.'—Washington, D.C., Oct. 27, 2003

jeanne d'arc at body and soul says this is the best bushism ever. well, for some value of "best" that involves weeping in despair, yeah.

Making Light: Further installment

teresa nielsen hayden explains how to deal with it if someone mails you anthrax spores.

And here’s the basic deal: Say you open an envelope and find weird powder in it. What do you do? You start by knowing that anthrax spores are heavier than air, and that anthrax is not the easiest infection in the world to catch. It’s just relatively easy to prepare usable powdered anthrax for use as a weapon. That’s lucky for you. You also know that anthrax-bits tend to be electrostatically active, so watch out for that.

lots more at the link, including news about a new postal regulation and some thoughts on the upcoming election.

The Onion | Muscleman Put In Charge Of World's Fifth-Largest Economy:

SACRAMENTO, CA—Political observers are struggling to understand exactly how, on Oct. 7, Arnold Schwarzenegger, an Austrian-born, movie-star muscleman with no political experience, was elected to govern the state of California, the world's fifth-largest economic region.

'We're a bit baffled as to exactly how this happened,' said David Gergen, director of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. 'Poll results show that the strongman received 1.3 million more votes than the next candidate—that much is clear. We just can't determine precisely why people believed that the bodybuilder was qualified to lead the socially and economically complex state of California.'

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, California is an economic region with an annual gross domestic product of $1.36 trillion—an amount equal to one-sixth of the U.S.'s total gross national product. Considered internationally, California's GDP ranks fifth in the world, behind the U.S., Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

"Apparently, this man has appeared in numerous popular films," Gergen said. "And I guess he was awarded a Mr. Universe title. But I don't understand how that would make him a competent gubernatorial candidate."

"There were, in fact, figures from the pornography industry on the ballot who were better equipped to lead than the muscleman," Gergen added. "A major adult-magazine publisher who could claim not only leadership and business experience, but also a working knowledge of First Amendment law, was in the running. The fact that the pornographer received only 15,454 votes is confusing, in light of the muscleman's victory."

sometimes the onion is just funny. sometimes the onion is funny and wincingly accurate.

oh! the excitement here at cavort! oh! the happy dancing!

(okay, some days it doesn't take much.)

hello? are we working now? did rebooting the server and the fancy dancing that nathan did make it work?

is ftp broken again/still? yarrrgh.

john scalzi seems to be both less tactful and much much funnier than i am. here is his collected writings on the confederate states of america. (he's not a fan, in case a person was wondering.)

WHATEVER: Speaking of Losers:

Apparently some 'Southern Heritage' site linked to one of my 'The Confederates Were Losers' screeds, which is precipitating another wave of good ol' boys to trot out their victimized wailings and send them to me in poorly spell-checked form. To forestall having the same argument over and over again, this would be a good time to trot out the various screeds I have on the subject in my archives and link to them, so they can read them all before sending their verbiage. So here they are.

(the rest is links and comments; go read.)

The Ms. Boards: The Male Privilege Checklist:

Since I first compiled it, the list has been posted several times on internet discussion groups. Very helpfully, many people have suggested additions to the checklist. More commonly, of course, critics (usually, but not always, male) have pointed out men have disadvantages too – being drafted into the army, being expected to suppress emotions, and so on. These are indeed bad things – but I never claimed that life for men is all ice cream sundaes. Pointing out that men are privileged in no way denies that sometimes bad things happen to men.

In the end, however, it is men and not women who make the most money; men and not women who dominate the government and the corporate boards; men and not women who dominate virtually all of the most powerful positions of society. And it is women and not men who suffer the most from intimate violence and rape; who are the most likely to be poor; who are, on the whole, given the short end of patriarchy’s stick. As Marilyn Frye has argued, while men are harmed by patriarchy, women are oppressed by it.

the one that got me was number nineteen--

19. If my day, week or year is going badly, I need not ask of each negative episode or situation whether or not it has sexist overtones.

if i had a nickel for every time i thought about that, i tell ya...

last week was mostly full of unpacking from icon, doing laundry, and packing to go to new york. sooo exciting.

also, on wednesday, there was gaming, and my character was very very good, and did not slice anything. next week, if there is no progress, she will be all about the slicing, however. we also talked about what we'll do when our troll moves to washington. okay, okay, the guy who plays the troll is moving to washington. not the troll himself. anyhow.

this week we will have social time at our house instead of gaming, and we will be passing around the dog and the baby and going "awww! wuzzer wuzzer wuzzer ooo!" at the both of them.

(whoops; that was last weekend. this weekend's writeup coming shortly.)

not dead! honest!

friday, we both had off of work. barda was over on thursday night, so first thing friday morning nathan took her off to work and then came home and woke me. (what a fine pleasing sweetheart he is. he let me sleep. awwwww.) then we frantically packed and loaded all our crap into the car. i had dropped the fabulous pirate dog off at my parents house the night before, so that was all done. then, into the car to drive to cedar rapids iowa, for the second time in a month. can we say tedious? can we say that a person should not need to have a favorite truck stop in iowa? (mason city, if you're wondering.)

anyhow. long drive, got there about 4 or 5pm. nathan had wanted to make opening ceremonies, but we were unfortunately running around like headless chickens getting ice for his soda and finding a place to make copies of the supercon party signs. we spotted the genghis grill and decided that we'd bring an expedition back there for dinner on saturday. back to the hotel, where we dragged in the soda and found a small horde of people to drag off to dinner in the hotel restaurant. they continue to have good sounding but not so tasty food. however, free breadsticks!

after dinner, i wandered up to the room and changed into my new jungle betsy outfit-- a stretchy camo t-shirt and olive cargo short-shorts. off to the supercon party, and i made conversation with people and handed out flyers and was polite to strangers for hours and it was all good. gregg had a homebrewing panel at 9pm, so at 10, when it got out, he led a whole bunch of people back to the room to sample his homebrew beer and nathan's homebrew soda.

i crashed, as predicted, about midnight. fall down go boooom.

saturday daytime was not so exciting, but that was fine. i went to the dealer's room and procured a few christmas presents and some books. i sat around the lobby and peoplewatched, and found out that the animeiowa postmortem had been relocated to the icon hotel, rather than the hotel across town where animeiowa had been held. (dear laura: :P ;) this did mean that i got to see the person who i had met and talked to at the wedding two weeks ago who i was hoping would be at icon, but only fleetingly. i succumbed to yet another bad case of "i think i'll pretend you don't exist". sheesh. if anyone knows a way to dig that programming out of my head and replace it with witty banter, please let me know.

anyhow. saturday night, we went off to genghis grill with tony and kerry and stephanie and jeudi (that's what her nametag said!) and had a quite fine time. pretty good food, although they seem to be a touch confused about this mexico/mongolia distinction. however, we had one vegetarian and one person with food allergies in the party, and the vegetarian was happy with the selection and the food allergy person was not dead, so i count that as a net win.

saturday night, i spent most of my evening in the consuite or in the hotel lobby, which is quite fine hanging out space. sadly, there was a bartender pouring strong drinks in the consuite, and there was a laboriously winding hallway between consuite and the lobby which had a fireplug in it. this, i say, is no fair. i am usually barefoot in the evenings at cons, and sometimes tipsy, and putting large cast iron obstacles in my way is a dirty trick.

i managed to not break myself, however. go, me!

sunday morning, we got up way too early, and sped home so as to coordinate the baby party for m., who slept through most of the baby party, and hardly fussed at all. many people came, and there were cookies and family and friends, and it was all good. the dogs didn't even eat anyone.

Who has a crush on kalmn? The below numbers indicate what sorta crushes kalmn's friends have on her, as taken from the results of the original LJ Secret Crush Meme. Questions? Please read the FAQ.

5 people have a Secret Crush on kalmn. 1 people have a Public Crush on kalmn. 0 people have an Ex-Crush on kalmn.

How many people have a crush on you?

hmmm. wonder who they are. i'm not paying the four bucks, though.

p.s. back from icon, it's been my birthday, all is well here in betsy land. more soon. maybe tomorrow.

Full Degradation of the Water Treatment System Probably Will Take At Least Another Six Months

while i love my country dearly, it's easier to do when i can at least pretend that it/we don't willfully and knowingly violate the geneva conventions. (full details at the link.)

this is so appalling that i can't even think of what to say about it.

for god's sake; don't we even have enough of a sense of shame left to try and hide this sort of atrocity, rather than have it out on the internet for all to see? (i seem to have given up on enough of a sense of decency to not do it in the first place...)

Salon.com | The moviegoing voter

Democracy is not simply about the vote. The vote is not simply like a ticket bought at Disneyland. And citizenship is not about the satisfaction of the id.

I think that the kind of passion now being poured into politics is the kind of passion that belongs in the bedroom, in novels and movies, on television and in sports. It is the passion of fucking and getting fucked, of beating and being beaten, of tricking and shooting and winning. It is not the passion of governing, which is the slow, simmering passion of long-held beliefs. Citizenship in a democracy is about the difficult and messy division of resources, about the tedious maintenance of infrastructure, about the orderly administration of tragic justice, about incremental improvements in the protection of the poor and the weak. It is not about dreams instantly fulfilled, as they are in the movies. It is about dreams desperately held to throughout decades of slow progress.

the problem with sleeping in a house with a baby in it is that it's necessary to stay awake so that you can tell whether or not the baby is still breathing.

i'm a touch groggy today.

however, the screamy fit at 2am did not wake me up, once i'd managed to get to sleep.

he's a fine little froglet, if a touch noisy.

i should say; my birthday is next weekend on sunday, not this past weekend. however, october is overbooked for events, so i had my party early. however, birthday wishes are gleefully accepted.

if only i weren't so steadfast about not posting to livejournal. no, not even for dot.cattiness will i do it.

anyhow.

self promotion is not a public service announcement.

thank you; drive through.

from ampersand, at Alas, a blog:

Different ways of measuring the pay gap (wage gap series, part 1)

Trends in the Wage Gap (wage gap series, part 2)

What Causes the Pay Gap? (wage gap series, part 3)

Wage Gap Myth: The pay gap only exists because men work so many more hours than women. (wage gap series, part 4)

The Motherhood Myth (wage gap series, part 5)

Myth: The pay gap only exists because women haven't been in the workplace as long as men (wage gap series, part 6)

Myth: The best way to measure the pay gap is to consider only the young and the childless (wage gap series, part 7)

this is fabulous research. i hope there's more of it coming. ampersand just got added to my must read list.

okay, so far, no appearing in a blur. hmmm.

had a party for my birthday this weekend. many many people came over. it was swell. birdfigment brought the most fabulous hummus in the world. oh my gosh. charles and flip brought me a bottle of wine, and so did kyle. mmmmm.

yay!

okay, also no coherence yet. more caffeine will fix this problem.

the betsy books are seriously out of stock. foo. no more betsy books for me.

Baghdad Burning

the author, riverbend, says it's a "Girl Blog from Iraq... let's talk war, politics and occupation."

she's about five years younger than me, and she was, before the war, a network administrator, like me. she's going onto my reading list.

and here is the all appearing in a blur part!

i have been thinking, recently, about the conflict between having a really very nice life and being happy with it, but still being sad about things that i don't have, that wouldn't fit into my life right now. i am sad about not having some things as the result of having made some very fundamental life choices that have worked out brilliantly well for me. the things i do have, i love and am happy with. i just want to say that a few more times. happy happy happy.

and there's a decent chance that if i had made other decisions, i not only wouldn't have the things that i am sad about, i'd be in a much worse place right now, and not have the things that currently make my life good.

intellectually, i understand this.

i'm still kinda mopey, though.

ftp is turned off on the server right now. soon all of this will appear in a blur.

i just did up a baby picture gallery for m. soon i may be able to post a link. if a person is dead curious, they could email me.

um. i am having a birthday party on saturday. yes i am. i am trying to pick up the house. our fabulous cleaning ladies donna and linda came today, so the house is clean, however it's cluttered. this is no good.